The little creature was soon untangled, and set down in a clear space as near to the mother as the boys could get. The deer did not seem to fear the boys, for she stood nosing over the baby for a long time. Then she led him away into the forest. Clay insists to this day that she bowed her thanks as the bushes closed behind her!
“There!” Clay shouted, in pretended anger. “You’ve gone and let many a supper get away from us. What do you mean by letting that deer run away in that manner? You’re nice fellows to go hunting with!”
“Run after her and murder her if you want to,” Alex remarked. “The woods are open to you, and you have the rifle. Go on and do it!”
Clay laughed in a bashful manner. Someway boys never do like to let others know that they are possessed of sentiment!
“I wouldn’t shoot that deer, not if I was starving!” he said. “I would always see her eyes looking out of the shade at me!”
“Don’t you ever think I didn’t know that!” Alex answered. “I guess we are a lot of babies, after all. Now we’ll have to eat bear meat for dinner, I can eat bear, for the bear would have eaten us if he had had half a chance. But the next thing is to get the Rambler into the river. That won’t be no merry picnic, I can tell you. Wish we had left her in.”
The boys made the boat as light as possible and then worked her along with handspikes cut from the woods. It was slow work, and many a time they stopped to breathe and joke over the job. Alex finally suggested that they put the wheels under and so make easier work of it.
“In this muck!” laughed Clay. “Why, those wheels would sink into this mess up to the hubs, and we should never be able to move them. No, we’ve just got to nudge her along in this way until we get to the slope that leads down to the river, and then she’ll go easier.”
It was noon before the prow dropped into the water. The boys were tired and disgusted, but they had been taught a lesson which they did not soon forget. They were lifted to banks by floods after that, but they did not permit the Rambler to lie there until the current ran out from under her! After dinner they started the motors again and speeded down stream.
The country was still wild on both sides of the Columbia, and the boys took plenty of time passing through it. There were many things to see and, besides, they still had half-hearted hopes that Gran would come back to them before they left that valley.